Making AI an Integral Part of the Solution

Molly Madziva-Taitt, PhD, VP global clinical affairs, Viz.ai, who spoke on the role of AI in driving health equity.

I recently attended the 2023 AIMed Global Summit, which focused on artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, in San Diego. During the summit, many leading experts discussed the various ways that AI is being implemented in healthcare. What struck me was the number of presenters who had a personal story behind what led them to pursue this path in life. Weaving in this personal narrative, I feel, brings a unique depth and passion to the work being done. One such example was Molly Madziva-Taitt, PhD, VP global clinical affairs, Viz.ai, who spoke on the role of AI in driving health equity.

Madziva-Taitt was born and raised in Zimbabwe. The day she spoke, June 6, her father would have turned 81. Unfortunately, he died at a much younger age simply because of lack of access to adequate care. This helped to shape her life’s mission. A trained engineer with a passion for clinical research, she combined these skills into what she does today. She offered this in her presentation: “I’ve really started to recognize that clinical research provides that potential where we can have life-saving treatments given to patients globally, in a way that any other way, without doing the research and the data, you would not be able to do. I grew up in a rural community, where it was very much about human-to-human connection. But certainly I had first-hand experience when access to healthcare was truly a challenging thing. So, I am dedicated to doing this work.

“Because I am in clinical research, I have to become the advocate for really driving clinical research that makes sense … encouraging healthcare systems to partner with the AI vendors that are creating these systems to do rigorous clinical research, beyond what is actually already done,” she continued.

Clearly, not every AI system is created equal. “I want to really share that I do feel that AI is an integral part of the solution,” Madziva-Taitt stressed. “However, it is truly just a single dimension of the solution when it comes to health equity.” She again emphasized the human-to-human connection, recognizing that fact that when healthcare systems and vendors come together, better work is often accomplished.

“The partnership between the AI vendors, the healthcare systems, and the regulators in those that care for these patients, are actually going to help us to be able to drive more health equity,” she emphasized, concluding with this thoughtful advice: “I’ll end with an African proverb that I’ve really lived by for a long time. ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ ”

You can read more about the role AI is playing in the medical imaging in the article, Discovering the Paradox of Duality at AIMed 2023, which discusses how critical it is for the medical community to learn to look at solutions in multiple ways to develop a deeper sense of duality. Also, AI Essentials in Radiology: Experts Weigh In, offers leading radiologists’ insights into AI governance and clinical applications. We’re eager to continue learning and sharing AI advances.